NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co. issued a credit card on Wednesday it says will be the first to cut help U.S. cardholders voluntarily cut emissions linked to global warming.

The card, called GE Money Earth Rewards Platinum Mastercard, allows users the option of automatically contributing up to one percent of their card purchases to buy greenhouse emissions offsets.

In voluntary emissions markets, consumers who feel guilty about their greenhouse emissions can buy offsets, or credits, designed to represent emissions reductions that took place somewhere else, like a solar or wind power farm.

"Earth Rewards cardholders will now have a new tool to complement the ways they are already reducing their emissions," Tom Gentile, an executive at GE Money said in a release. "They can turn everyday purchases into extraordinary rewards."

In addition, GE AES Greenhouse Gas Services, a joint venture between GE and power company AES Corp., said on Wednesday it has strengthened standards for the creation and sale of U.S. greenhouse gas credits. The credits it will generate will meet or exceed international standards, it said, through third party verification and other measures.

The joint venture expects to generate 10 million tons of greenhouse gas credits annually by 2010 under the standard.

A growing voluntary market in greenhouse gas credits has sprouted up as the world's top emitter of heat-trapping gases, United States, does not regulate the pollution.

Last year global greenhouse gas credit trade hit nearly 24 million tones of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to industry watchers.

But the market is not regulated, leading to concerns that some of the credits do not represent real greenhouse gas reductions.

The joint venture's greenhouse credit standard and criteria on the measurement, monitoring, verification and eligibility of emissions credits generated from coal mine methane and landfill methane destruction are available at www.ge-aes.com.

The first customer for the joint venture's credits will the be the Earth Rewards credit card, a company spokesman said.

But, once everyone starts buying $12/ton credits, the price will spiral upwards. In a market where few are buying, the price is cheap. Once we’re locked into an ever-widening obligation to buy, watch out.

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